Enemy
The double
Due to the commercial side of the film industry, most movies, especially those made in Hollywood, obey simplistic recipes, with linear stories, impactful climax and happy endings. Even French cinema, famous for its films with open endings, has surrendered to the temptation of the box office, following the Hollywood model. Therefore, films such as “Enemy” (CAN, 2013), by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, are honorable exceptions at the present time.
Villeneuve was one of the great surprises of the film industry of this new millennium. He already surprised in 2009 with “Polytechnique” and would soon consolidate his name with “Incendies” (CAN/FRA, 2010). The first is about a massacre at a University of Montreal in 1989, and the second shows a family odyssey that begins in Canada and ends in the Palestinian territories, with a story beyond amazing.
Villeneuve would later direct three of the most iconic science fiction films of this decade: “Arrival” (USA/CAN, 2016), “Blade Runner 2049” (USA/CAN, 2017) and “Dune: Part One” (CAN/USA, 2021).
Showing to like complicated stories, the director faced the hard task of bringing to the screen the book of the same name by José Saramago, known for his complex works and full of symbolisms. Far from becoming an incomprehensible adaptation, the film became very interesting, although it requires the viewer something that is not normally required of him: to think and seek its own interpretation of the film.
The protagonist is Adam Bell (the great Jake Gyllenhaal, who worked with Villeneuve on “Prisoners”), a college professor who teaches Political Science or something like that to students who don’t seem too interested. Tedious seems to be the word that describes Adam’s life well, which obeys a very repetitive pattern, always home, class, home, sex. Even Adam’s girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent) shares this immutable routine.
One day, a co-worker suggests that Adam watch a movie he liked. Accepting the suggestion, he rents the film and is surprised to discover that one of the actors is a perfect doppelganger of his.
Adam becomes obsessed about this person, who appears to be a faithful copy of him, and goes on to investigate over the internet and even stand sentry at the door of the actor’s agency. Discovers that his name is Anthony St. Claire (Jake Gyllenhaal), is married to Helen (Sarah Gadon), who is pregnant and becomes intrigued by the mysterious phone calls of the man who has the same voice as her husband. She is shocked when she looks for him at university and discovers that he is identical to her husband.
The two men come to meet, but, the thing does not flow well, and there is an animosity between the two, with suspicions aside aside, and a more aggressive attitude of Anthony, who suspects the other, and wants to pass himself by him to go out with Mary.
This story could even be told as comedy, or get lost in an empty drama were it not for the impressive construction of the film, with an ever-increasing tension, and a sometimes harrowing soundtrack.
Surely everyone who watch the movie will develop their theory about what is the truth behind the story, whether it is a clone, whether they are separated twins in the cradle, whether they are the same person, whether they are delusions of one or the other. To feed these theories, several clues arise throughout history, in dialogues with women, and in the brief, but important appearance of Isabella Rossellini as Adam’s mother.
To give more flavor to the story, there are several surrealist appearances of spiders, from tiny to monumental, whose place and meaning will be in charge of the viewer’s imagination.
“Enemy” is not a blockbuster to be watched with popcorn and soda. It is a film that requires attention and open mind, to develop its own theory, and who knows to give way to a healthy and prolonged discussion of bar table.
This movie is available on streaming services Now and Amazon Prime Video.